Gibson, Bowa discuss Perez jersey incident

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

PHOENIX -- Phillies third-base coach Larry Bowa said on Sunday that he had nothing to do with his club complaining to the umpires on Friday night about the slits in the long-sleeve undergarment worn in that game by D-backs reliever Oliver Perez. Perez was told to take off the shirt.

"It was a player," Bowa said unsolicited. "I can't even see that far."

When told that it was D-backs manager Kirk Gibson who implied it might have been Bowa, who alerted Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg about the possible uniform violation, Bowa added:

"Well, you go back and tell him I didn't do it."

Bowa then went out on the field during batting practice and told Gibson himself.

"I didn't say it was Bowa," Gibson said good-naturedly in bringing the subject up unprompted during Sunday's pregame media conference. "You told him I said it."

What Gibson said on Friday night was this:

"[The umpire] said that one sleeve was longer than the other and he had a little tear in it. There was nothing we could do about it. The rule says it's supposed to be the same length, the same color. And it can't be flapping. I have a pretty good idea whose call that was in the other dugout and it wasn't Sandberg."

When asked if he was talking about "Pee Wee," Bowa's nickname, Gibson responded: "You figure it out!"

Bowa read the comment and apparently took exception.

Phillies outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr. corroborated that Bowa had nothing to do with it.

"It was definitely a player," Gwynn said. "I'm not going to tell you who it was, but he noticed it during batting practice. We just weren't sure if we were going to use it."

Perez was brought in to open the eighth inning of the eventual 5-4 D-backs win and face lefty hitters Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. After Utley flied out, Sandberg came out of the dugout to complain to plate umpire Mark Wegner.

The four umpires met and Wegner told Perez to remove the shirt, which had slits in each sleeve. On the way to the dugout, he dropped the ball, flipped his glove to the ground and began disrobing, returning to pitch without a shirt beneath his white D-backs jersey.

Howard singled and Perez was removed from the game for right-hander Brad Ziegler.

Gibson was told on Sunday that a lot of media members thought he was talking about Bowa.

"I never said anything about Bowa, but Larry has a good reputation, I admit it," Gibson said. "Could we be done?"

Ross OK easing back into everyday role

PHOENIX -- Cody Ross was back in the lineup and in left field for the second consecutive game on Sunday at Chase Field after missing back-to-back starts.

Ross had two singles and three RBIs off ace Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee in Saturday night's 6-5 loss, making him 3-for-26 since returning from the disabled list on April 18 in his comeback from last year's severe hip injury and surgery. He also made a sliding catch in foul territory on a ball hit by Lee to open the fifth inning.

Manager Kirk Gibson said he intends to spot Ross and not push him too much. Ross couldn't disagree.

"I think I'm pretty much ready to play every day," said Ross, who admitted to limited mobility in the outfield and a still tentative feeling running the bases. "I think the smart thing would be to take it easy. I'm coming off a really serious injury. The last thing they want to do is run somebody into the ground after you've had that type of injury.

"But we'll be smart about it. [Gibson] has asked me every single day how I feel, how I'm recovering, stuff like that. As far as running out there and playing, I can do it on a majority basis."

Ross has had a litany of injuries in his life: a torn anterior cruciate ligament, a broken leg in middle school, the recurrence of a strained left calf during last year's Spring Training that kept him on the disabled list until mid-April and established the pattern of his first season with the D-backs after signing a three-year, $26 million free-agent contract.

But nothing prepared him for the injury he sustained on Aug. 11 at Chase Field against the Mets. During the bottom of the first inning, Ross smacked a grounder in the hole between third and short that was fielded cleanly by third baseman Wilmer Flores. Ross ran the ball out, but collapsed just before he reached first base.

Ross is back on the field simply because of the advances in sports medical surgery.

Two days after the incident, Ross underwent reconstructive surgery on his right hip. The back wall of the hip was broken off, Ross explained, so surgeons went in and put that back together, putting a plate over it with screws.

"Yeah, no question, the evolution of medicine has definitely come a long way since Bo Jackson," Ross said referring to the superstar athlete whose dual baseball and football careers ended in the early 1990s because a catastrophic hip injury. "He's the only guy who comes to mind. He was such a freak athlete that he was able to play two seasons of baseball afterwards because he was Bo Jackson. If I had done that back then I'd have probably been done."